10/05/2010

Rachel went to a reenactment over the weekend, so I watched all three boys by myself. Friday, I took the boys to the park, then we watched Veggietales till bedtime. Saturday was fun, but busy. We went to Dunkin Donuts, then the UC surplus sale, then the zoo, then to a birthday party, then to McDonald's as it had started raining, and I let them run around in the PlayLand. We finished off the day watching IronMan 2.

Rachel came home late Saturday night due to weather issues. So Sunday we decided to do a few things that we wouldn't have otherwise been able to do. But the day started off with Teddy throwing a remote at Rachel's laptop and shattering the screen.

Rachel got to go to a Baby shower for two friends, one living in town, and one living out of town. Unfortunately as we were leaving that party to head to the next, I backed into a mailbox, scratching the entire driver's side of the Pacifica :(.

After that we went to a birthday/football party at our friends new home. We didn't get to stay long due to the boys behavior, but at least we finally got to see their gorgeous new home.

When we came home, it was cold in the house. I had the furnace set to "emergency" heat, which is how we bypass the heat pump and use the gas. (Long story, but our heat pump is 20+ years old, and I just prefer the heat from gas). The thermostat said that the heat was on, but the furnace wasn't running. After tearing into it, I found the inducer motor to be really, really, really hot!!!! and buzzing, so I figured that was messed up. I scheduled an appointment for Tuesday afternoon to have an HVAC company look it over, but was hopeful that it would be an easy fix. Flipped over to the heat pump for heat, and have been relatively happy with it for a few days.

That brings us to Monday. It started out great. Cupcakes at work, started reading the new Monster Hunter novel (see last post), and then I got a phone call from Rachel that Ricky had been bad at school and that they were sending him home early. Since I had the HVAC appointment on Tuesday, I was working late, and by the time I got home from work, Rachel had put the boys to bed.

This morning started out ok. Picked up MCD's for breakfast due to Monopoly, and that I was skipping lunch to make up more time for the HVAC appointment. At lunch Rachel informed me that we didn't get a rent check from our Minster Renter (late charges start on 6th), so I sent him an email. Got the response that they had mailed it yesterday, and then he dropped a bomb. They had been telling me that they were going to go month to month, but now he informed me they were moving out at the end of their lease. So we have two more checks coming from them (counting this month), and then they are done. So that is a huge stress as we really can't afford to carry that loan without a renter. So we dropped the price on the house again, and are hopeful that something will show up in the next 60 days. We now have it listed for less than we purchased it for 4 years ago, not counting all the work we have done to it.

So at 2:30, I headed home as my appointment was the whole "Arrive between 3-5PM" thing. I got home at 3, and played with the boys some. At 4:45 (seriously) I get a phone call that the technician is 20-25 minutes away, and will be there as soon as he can. But just after 5, he shows up, and I show him the issues. He has me run the unit in a variety of different ways, and he verify's that the induction fan is bad, and buttons everything up. As he is gathering his tools, I point to water running out of the bottom of the unit with a "Hey, it has never done that before". So we tear back into it and find water in the heat exchanger, and running out the bottom. He informs me that this means my heat exchanger is cracked and that he is really sorry, but it will have to be replaced, and it is not cheap. He also says that he can't just replace the induction fan now as it could be a CO issue, but tells me that I can run on the heat pump till I make a decision. He buttons everything back up, and we head up. After looking at my Heat pump outside, he sits in his truck for a while, and finally comes back to tell me the damage. ~$5k for a 95% unit installed (furnace only). Yikes!!! But wait, with that unit I qualify for all of these rebates and tax credits!!!! So it is only ~3.5k after that!!. I tell him I will think about it and pay the service call.

I called my parents, and dad told me he can get me a pretty decent unit for ~1.5k, but I will have to install it myself. That sounds much better to me. Going to see if I can get something else from a guy at work, but that looks like my best bet. And since it is the 95% unit, I still qualify for the ~1.5k rebates, so I might get it for FREE ;).

Anyways, thanks for reading this far. Can't wait to see what the rest of this week has in store for us.